A battered old banger is the perfect family car Debbi MarcoSeptember 7, 2025 at 1:00 PM 23 Matt, Sam, Matilda and Debbi on one of their family road trips Debbi Marco With the driver'sside door mirror attached with gaffer tape, the electric window on the passenger side that never quite shut properly ...
- - A battered old banger is the perfect family car
Debbi MarcoSeptember 7, 2025 at 1:00 PM
23
Matt, Sam, Matilda and Debbi on one of their family road trips - Debbi Marco
With the driver's-side door mirror attached with gaffer tape, the electric window on the passenger side that never quite shut properly and the door seal which fell off every time anyone got in or out, you might think I would be desperate to upgrade my battered old Ford S-Max, but nothing was further from the truth.
With most British drivers owning their car for just over nine years, we were way above average as we had bought the car from a stereotypically seedy used-car dealer 15 years ago, when it was already five years old. My husband Matt and I were young, naive and hadn't done the basic checks on who we were giving our £8,000 to. Within two weeks of buying the S-Max, it sat on our driveway refusing to start and the dealer had mysteriously closed suddenly.
The nice man from the RAC cheerfully informed us the battery was way too small and was amazed we'd got the engine started at all. After forking out for a battery of the correct size, we finally had a car we could actually drive.
Keeping in mind its less-than-auspicious beginnings, it should have been no surprise when my petrolhead brother-in-law noticed that the car had a slightly different coloured navy panel welded into the side, meaning it had been in an undeclared (to us, at least) accident.
By this point I just sighed and moved on: the S-Max, in a few short weeks, had become part of our family. It was flawed but it was ours.
Flawed but family-friendly
There was a lot that endeared it to us. It comfortably seated my now 14-year-old son, Sam, and my daughter Matilda, now 12, both with all their baby paraphernalia (then) and their long legs and many friends (now). All seven seats were in regular use.
Back then we thought nothing of packing the large boot with a supply of clothes, toys, scooters and buggies before heading for a day trip or on holidays abroad, with the navy blue, dented and scraped S-Max enduring endless snacking, the resulting crumbs and the inevitable bouts of travel sickness from our brood in the back.
Sam enjoys a sizeable snack - Debbi Marco
We made many visits to the Isle of Wight where my in-laws live, driving on to the ferry before tackling the narrow country lanes of the island. So it's probably no surprise that when we drove too close to a hedge our door mirror was shorn clean off.
Benefits of owning a banger
But one of the benefits of having an old banger means that nothing can make it worse – not even a smashed mirror. Instead of paying the necessary £300 to fit a new one we spent a few pounds on a roll of gaffer tape which sorted the problem effortlessly, if not stylishly.
As the kids grew older, we ventured farther afield and took our S-Max on the ferry to rural France – where we had to deal with a puncture and replacement tyre – with Matt relying heavily on Google Translate to establish that France requires all four tyres to be the same brand, not just the same size as in the UK.
During an expensive pit stop in France, Debbi discovered that all of her tyres had to be from the same brand - Debbi MarcoTrapped in a lift
Undeterred, for our next holiday we drove to Holland where we spent an hour trapped underground in a car lift in Amsterdam with our S-Max wedged halfway between the underground car park and street level, while engineers worked desperately to free us. Eventually they managed to wedge open the lift doors as we climbed inelegantly out of the S-Max's windows, to the applause of a handful of spectators who had gathered on the street. While no harm was done, it did leave me wary of lifts for quite a while.
The Ford S-Max trapped in a car lift in Amsterdam - Debbi Marco
As the S-Max grew older, it was less able to cope with the demands we placed on it. It suffered regularly with flat tyres, even when it had just been sitting on our driveway – although when the helpful guys at Kwik Fit sanded the rust off the wheel rims it stopped – but not before we had a £500 bill for four new tyres.
Overheating
The scariest incident came most recently when I was driving the kids along the M25 motorway to visit my parents and the car wouldn't exceed 40mph. It was terrifying.
When I reached my parents' house, my dad promptly informed me the engine had overheated as the radiator cap had split and we were lucky the engine hadn't seized. A mere £3.50 and a top-up of water later, the S-Max was ready to go again. It really was the car that refused to die.
Darren, whose garage performed my car's annual MOT roadworthiness check, would always laugh as I bemoaned the Ford, promising me it had many years left in it.
The final curtain
But sadly that wasn't to be. When I returned home one Sunday afternoon, I discovered a huge dent along the driver's door and running into the rear door: clearly, a van had driven into the S-Max. With two doors damaged, it would cost more than £3,000 to repair the damage – and since our insurer valued the car at only £1,500, it was a write-off.
The dent that marked the end of the road for this much-loved family car - Debbi Marco
I felt strangely sad as I cleared the scratched CDs from the glove box and watched it being loaded on to a transporter before being driven to the scrapyard. We had had so many adventures in the old banger, good and bad, that it really was a part of our family.
Sad times, as the car is driven away to the scrapyard - Debbi MarcoReasons for our attachment
It turns out I'm not alone in becoming so attached to my dented old banger, as psychotherapist Kamalyn Kaur explains: "Often it's not the car people are getting attached to, it's the feelings, memories and identity connected with the car.
"For many people a car will have been with them through big milestones in life such as a promotion or driving back from a break-up with a partner, so it's all wrapped up in the memories and emotions of a certain time or place. For other people it could be a reliable companion and a consistent space."
And it seems I was more connected to a battered old S-Max than I realised, because although my husband and I spent a few weeks discussing its replacement (a sexy new Volkswagen ID. Buzz perhaps, or a steady Skoda Kodiaq), in the end we knew what we needed.
So when my brother-in-law found an equally battered S-Max for just under £3,000 we knew we had to have it. While the parking camera flickers on and off, rendering it useless, the electric windows glide effortlessly up and down and I don't have to jam the door seal back on every time I get out. In many ways this one does feel like an upgrade. However, despite looking nearly identical, it didn't quite feel like ours.
But with a quick holiday to Belgium providing a fresh coating of dog hair and crumbs, along with some fresh dents and scrapes, it has quickly become our new family banger.
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